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Verses 13-20 are part of the Lectionary reading for Year A, August 21 to 27, but I am using it during Lent this year to give my congregation a clearer sense of the events that led to Jesus' arrest, trial, torture and execution.
Interestingly, this pivotal passage occurs outside of the "home turf" of Jesus and his followers, in the district of Caesarea Philippi north of Galilee.
Jesus has been traveling about doing signs, teaching and healing. This has resulted in crowds being drawn to him. It is now time to do some assessing.
Notice Jesus begins with the more general and moves to the specific: first with the crowds, then with his followers. What's the gossip about me? What are the crowds saying? What honour / status / reputation are they attributing to me? The disciples name several prophets and holy men of Israel - they are saying you are - or are like - a prophet or holy man.
But what about you my closest associates? This is a challenging question. It is direct and it puts Jesus and his followers on the spot - a potentially embarrassing spot if their answer is: "We don't think that much of you actually." Everything hangs on what their answer is.
Simon speaks for the group: "You are the Christ / the Anointed One / the Messiah (Aside: these three terms are all translations of the same Greek word.), the Son of God."
This affirmation by Simon is not just a formal statement of intellectual belief. It is a statement of an intimate relationship between Jesus and God, and between Jesus and his followers.
This statement reveals what up till had been an unstated organic process: the developing awareness of Jesus' followers and their bonding with him in his mission / ministry / identity.
This is not the sort of thing that ordinary human thinking could figure out. The confirmation of this revelation from "my Father in Heaven," then also brings with it the blessings, privileges, and authority that come with being in such a relationship. Jesus had these as God's Son; now Peter and the others have these as true disciples of the Messiah.
Unfortunately, the Lectionary leaves out the scriptural context for this transformational revelation: "You of little faith" that came before in Verse 8; and "Get behind me, Satan! (Addressed to Peter) You are a stumbling block to me." that comes after in Verse 23. The Lectionary gives us the beatific visions of the disciples divine affirmation (Chapter 16, verses 13-20) and the Transfiguration (Chapter 17, verses 1-13), but omits these tales of the disciples human failures. I personally find these stories comforting because if THEY could be disciples, maybe I could be too. (Aside: And, ironically, the fact that such humbling / dishonourable stories are told by the disciples about themselves lends credibility to the Biblical eye witnesses.)
Verses 21-23 are the first of three occasions of Jesus showing his disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Each time, the declaration is followed by Peter, or James and John, doing something that is out of alignment with what Jesus has just said. In this case, Peter outrightly rejects it and is rebuked by Jesus.
David Ewart
www.holytextures.com
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